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Across the board

This section contains news and analysis of sweeping developments that affect the overall push and pull towards FTAs and bilateral investment treaties. This means major trends relating to bilateralism, often with global consequences, and other cross-cutting issues. New developments arising from US politics, the WTO or South-South alliance-building, for instance, are often reported here as they tend to have systemic impacts.

last update: May 2012

Democrats change FTA views
11-Sep-2007     LBC
More and more US Democrats, many of whom have been skeptical about the Bush administration's trade agenda in Latin America, now support pending free trade agreements with Peru, Colombia, and Panama.
UNCTAD warns poor countries on free trade deals
6-Sep-2007     Afrique en ligne
Though preferential trade agreements (PTAs) may offer transitory gains in terms of market access and higher foreign direct investment, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has cautioned developing countries to be careful before entering into such deals.
Stiglitz: FTAs advantageous to US
30-Aug-2007     The Edge
Nobel laureate and former World Bank chief economist Joseph Stiglitz believes that no country should enter into free trade agreements with the US, as none of the developing countries has benefited greatly from them.
Google's free trade agenda
20-Jul-2007     Forbes
For the past several months, Google has been quietly lobbying the US government to include restrictions against Internet censorship as a stipulation in free trade agreements with other countries.
FTA push moves to top of Bush agenda
18-Jul-2007     The Gate
With the president's top domestic priority -- immigration overhaul -- in tatters, the Bush administration is intensifying efforts to move its trade agenda on Capitol Hill, using national security as an argument for four free-trade deals it wants Congress to pass as quickly as possible.
US FTA talks hanging in the balance
2-Jul-2007     The Star
Trading partners of the United States will have less confidence that the United States can honour trade deals it is negotiating after Congress leaders announced that they would not renew the President's fast-track trade authority, and also rejected two FTAs.
House Republicans push for Bush trade renewal
29-Jun-2007    
U.S. House of Representatives Republicans sought a broad renewal on Thursday of the Bush administration's "fast track" trade authority to conclude world trade talks and smaller bilateral deals.
A backroom deal on trade?
26-Jun-2007     Socialist Worker
The crisis facing the US empire in the Middle East is also playing out in American efforts to maintain economic dominance in Asia and Latin America.
USTR, Congress settle on changes to trade deals
26-Jun-2007     ABC News
The Bush administration and U.S. lawmakers have agreed on a blueprint to strengthen labor and environmental protections in four pending free trade deals, trade officials said on Monday.
The changing landscape of regional trade agreements: 2006 update
17-Jun-2007    
An update (to end 2006) of WTO's discussion paper on RTAs/FTAs